Chance and Change For Such a Time as This

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

“ For such a time as this ,” reigns as one of the most memorable verses in all of the Old Testament (Esther 4:13-17).  Those words were penned by a Jewish man named Mordecai.    He wrote them to his cousin, Esther, to persuade her to take a serious risk — the risk of losing her life!  

Esther had become queen under King Xerxes. She had been granted that position when Xerxes removed his previous wife, Vashti, from the throne for disobeying one of his requests. After Esther assumed the crown, the highest official in the court of King Xerxes, an evil and self absorbed man by the name of Haman, arranged for all of the Jews to be killed on a single day. He had become angry with Mordecai, who had refused to bow and pay him homage. Haman was too afraid to openly murder Mordecai himself, so instead, he crafted a law for the King to sign that could not be rescinded. That law arranged for all of the jews in the kingdom to be killed on a single day. In this way, Haman could dispense with Mordecai, and all of his people. But no one knew that Mordecai’s cousin, Esther, was a jew.

Mordecai approached Esther, and told her that she needed to go before the King and plead for Jewish safety. Esther knew that it was illegal to approach the king uninvited. If you did so, and the King did not raise his sceptre toward you, then you would be guilty of breaking the law, and could be executed. She resisted Mordecai’s suggestion, but he persuaded her with that famous phrase. He argued that, perhaps, her whole reason for being in the place she was as queen was to save her people from a violent and unjust law. Mordecai’s wisdom convinced Esther to take a chance. She approached the king, and argued for her people. Because Xerxes loved her, he raised his sceptre and listened. Although the law he signed to kill the Jews could not be revoked, he implemented a new law that allowed them to defend themselves. In the end, the Jews had a great victory, and Haman was ultimately executed. Mordecai was made great in the court of Xerxes, and lifted up among the Jewish people.

If Esther had not realized that she was placed where she was for just such a time , and if she had not taken a chance, her people would not have experienced a change or salvation.

What chance stands before you? In this time and place, for what have you been purposed? To whom can you bring change, and a way of salvation?